I have seriously been struggling to come up with witty titles for my blogs, so Chris... I am jealous!
On Friday, I went to Hampton Court Palace. I have struggled to explain to people exactly what it is, so I have just been calling it the vacation home of Henry VIII and other British monarchs. Apparently it was the place where everyone decided to flee to when the Black Plague struck London. Speaking of the Black Plague, I feel like I have some variation of that right now. I might be exaggerating just a little bit, because I have been getting progressively better in the past few days. Hampton Court was seriously beautiful though, especially the gardens. I was happy that all the flowers were still in bloom. They provided for some pretty good pictures. (which you can see here) After touring the Palace itself, we walked through the hedge maze in the gardens. I expected it to be way more difficult than it was, as we only hit 2 dead ends before making it to the center. If you ever go to Hampton Court, make sure to walk through the Queen's apartments. Above one of the doorways, there is a painting of a man leaning up against a tree with a hoof for a foot. If you look closely, you can see that one of the art restorers has painted a modern day wristwatch on the man. The art restorer no longer works for the palace but he wanted to leave his mark on Hampton Court. I highly recommend making a day trip and visiting the place, it was beautiful.
The rest of the weekend I basically relaxed and mostly recovered from my illness. I slept way more than I should have, but it was nice.
On Monday, I decided to venture out on my own while again, everyone else was in class. I went to a store called Primark, which was incredibly cheap but a little overwhelming. I managed to make a few good purchases though, and I look for any excuse to get a lot for only a little money. From there, I decided to an audio tour that I found online of some places I hadn't seen yet in London. The audio tour took me through Kensington Gardens, which was especially pretty because of all the fall colors from the leaves that are currently changing. Fall is definitely a season I miss when I am in Arizona. I walked past Kensington Palace, the place where Princess Diana and Prince Charles lived. If you've seen pictures, this was the gate where millions of flowers were placed after her death. After walking through Kensington Gardens, the tour took me past the Albert Memorial, where I was stopped by a silly old British man who proceded to rant to me about how awful the Albert Memorial looks since they have painted him gold. He was also upset about the fact that there are currently gates around the memorial, which prevent anyone from scratching the gold off of the statue of Prince Albert. Across from the memorial is the Royal Albert Hall, where concerts and movies are still played to this day. After passing both monuments to Prince Albert, I walked by the Natural History Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and some random churches. The tour ended at Harrod's and I was so hungry that it stopped me from going inside this time. I am still planning my trip back for the gelato from the food halls. The only thing I regretted about the tour was that I forgot my camera.
Today was the start of the school week, so if I don't update again before Friday you'll know why. I am leaving for Amsterdam this weekend, so expect a detailed post about that trip when I return!
"Insert witty title here"
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Posted by Rachel at 9:23 AM
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2 comments:
A colleague of mine has already coined "Insert Witty Statement Here" as his column title.
How about, "Audio Tourture and the Black Plague."
enjoy Amsterdam and watch out for pickpockets
You know Nanna and poppop were victims and they tried to get into mommy's purse when she took the street car.
Consider downloading the movie "in Burges" for the trip over. I found it very funny
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